to where will you run
by ricetard
Summary: Hilbert finds her. / Hilbert/Hilda  or Black/White, game!verse.  Fluff. Oneshot.


**Game!verse! I love Hilda and Hilbert (or White and Black, if you prefer-I used these names because this is game!verse.) I used to ship N/Hilbert more, but then N started being a douche in the manga so I started shipping these two protags instead ;D**

* * *

><p>When Hilbert first meets her, the first thing he says is:<p>

"Who the hell are you?"

xxx

"I think that it's gross that our names are so similar," says Hilda.

They're in Castelia, waiting in line to get their ice cream. It's a hot summer day—as all the summer days are in Unova—and there are businessmen and businesswomen milling about. They're about the only two teens, non-adults here, and Hilbert sort of likes it.

But he doesn't like it when Hilda says this, because maybe a small part of him had always liked it that their names are similar, because it makes him feel closer to her.

"Why?" he asks, as they move up in the line.

Hilda orders her ice cream flavor—mango, and Hilbert's always known that it's her favorite—and then shrugs and says to him, "I dunno, it's just gross."

There's something in her voice that might suggest something else, that might imply that she doesn't like it for a reason she doesn't want to voice because she's afraid—and Hilbert respects this, and he's no longer bothered.

He watches as Hilda licks her ice cream, bright and happy, glowing in the sun.

xxx

"Where have you been my whole life?" Hilbert asks in awe after their first Battle Subway battle.

He'd been reluctant to work with her at first—he's never done double battles before, so it's something completely new to him and he's always known how to do things on his own—but Hilda's team is practically perfect when partnered with his own. She seems to predict everything he does even before _he_knows, and her pokémon are powerful but fair. She's not dumb and she's reasonable and she's not afraid, by the way her brown hair is pulled tight back behind her head and her light eyes are sparkling with adventure.

She laughs and says, "I don't know, but I'm here now."

"You could have helped me a lot with defeating Team Plasma," he says absently.

Her eyes go wide. "Oh—I couldn't possibly do that," she says. "I like to train and battle and stuff, but—"

"And you're powerful enough," says Hilbert. "You've defeated all the Gym Leaders and the Elite Four and everything. _Man_, if I'd known you earlier."

"You've only known me for ten minutes," she says amusedly.

"You should've come into my life more than ten minutes ago," he says, but he's smiling and she's smiling back.

xxx

She lives in Nimbasa and she's used to the city life, and Hilbert has spent most of his days lodging in a hotel in Castelia; but he asks her to come with him to Nuvema, anyways, because he needs to go home and visit his mother once in a while, as all good sons should do.

"Sure," she says, and off they go.

It's a three-day journey and Hilbert's also never been a journey with anyone before—he's always been used to doing things for himself, by himself. But Hilda is wonderful company and she knows the punchlines to all his jokes and gets annoyed when he accidentally assumes that she won't want to sleep outside and then freaks out when she sees a wild sewaddle. Hilbert laughs at her and she narrows his eyes at him and tells him that she totally saw the fear in his eyes, too, when he had first laid eyes on the sewaddle. Hilbert tells her no, she's just imagining it and making it up because he's not a pussy like she is.

She whacks him in the arm three times and then they fall asleep under the stars, peacefully.

When they make it to Accumula Town the next day, in the early evening, Hilbert suggests that they take a rest stop and get to Nuvema in the morning; but when Hilda asks him exactly _where_Nuvema is in relation to Accumula (and Hilbert makes fun of her, briefly, for not knowing the geography of the region) and Hilbert tells her that it's only the next town over, she refuses his offer and says that she wants to meet his parents as soon as possible. Hilbert tries to persuade her out of it and says that it'll tire her out, but she refuses and pretty much has to drag him to his own home town.

At Hilbert's house, Hilbert knocks on the door and his mom answers with a, "Did you really have to knock to come home?" They hug and Hilbert introduces Hilda, who's bright and awake even though it's about eleven at night. Hilbert's mom sees to approve immediately (though what to approve, Hilbert doesn't know) and she sends a glance to Hilbert that he doesn't quite understand (or he does and he doesn't want to admit it), and says that Hilda can sleep in her bed, if she wants. Hilda says no; Hilbert says, she can sleep in my bed and I'll sleep on the couch, and Hilda says, I'll do that.

xxx

"Who knew you could cook?" Hilda says amusedly as she pours syrup on her pancakes.

She pours a copious amount. Hilbert watches her, and says, "Who ever said I _couldn't_?"

"Never thought you'd be the kind of guy to cook, to be honest," says Hilda. She starts eating, and when she looks up, catches Hilbert's eye. "What are you staring at?" she says through a mouthful of food.

"I don't think that much sugar is good for you," says Hilbert, nodding to her pancakes. "You could get diabetes."

Hilda stares at him in disbelief—it's the disbelief she always has when Hilbert says something like this, like _whose brain actually works in the way that yours does_—and then says, "Fine, I'll feed some to my serperior."

She nudges her pokéball open—Hilbert's always liked that she could do that like she can feel the pokémon inside them—and her serperior comes out. When she sticks her forkful of pancake-covered-syrup out in offering, her serperior's expression goes into one of disgust.

"Oh well," says Hilda, shrugging and turning back to her plate. "More for me."

xxx

They finish one seven-win streak within twenty minutes, and it's probably the fastest twenty minutes of Hilbert's life. He can't believe his luck at landing such a fantastic partner.

"You're pretty good too," she says, when he continues to watch her battle with disbelief.

"Yeah, but you're just…" Hilbert gestures to her with awe.

"You're like a little fanboy," laughs Hilda, and she glances over to their pokémon who are interacting with each other as well, during the break on the subway. "Look, our simipour and simisage are getting along."

Hilbert watches as his simisage nudges Hilda's simipour like they've known each other forever, and he smiles. "It's good that they do," he says. "That's probably what's helping us win, that our pokémon are friends."

"We're friends too," Hilda reminds him—and oh yeah, Hilbert remembers, after thirty minutes of fighting side-by-side, they are, indeed, friends.

xxx

In the afternoon they decide to leave Nuvema—actually, neither of them had been the ones to decide it, but Hilbert's mother had suggested for them to.

"You guys are pokémon trainers," she'd said. "You're sixteen now. You're old enough to do whatever you want."

Hilbert thinks it's a bit too much liberation from his mom, but he hugs her and promises her that he'll be safe.

"Make sure he does," his mom says to Hilda.

"It's like you said, Mom, I'm old enough to do whatever _I_want," Hilbert tries to say stubbornly, but Hilda just smiles at his mom and says, "I will!"

"You will not," Hilbert says to her. "You can't make sure I do anything—"

"Oh, thee know little the power I wield over you," Hilda says smugly.

Hilbert scoffs and rolls his eyes. "I know little because there _is_little power you hold over me."

"But you've admitted that I do hold some power over you."

"No I didn't."

"You did," Hilda says, so firmly that when Hilbert tries to come up with an appropriate argument, all he can let out is a dumb, "No I didn't," again.

Hilbert's mom laughs and Hilbert glares at her for being a traitor. She pretends not to see but Hilbert can see the teasing smile at the corner of her lips. "Both of you," she says to the two of them, now. "Look out for each other."

"We will!" they bid back to her, and then they take off together.

xxx

"I like you," Hilbert says to her when they're sleeping under the stars again.

Hilda doesn't move but Hilbert likes to imagine that she's smiling now, like she always smiles when she's around him.

"I like you too," she says, and their hands find each other and they wake up to a new day.

xxx

They defeat everyone on the Double Battle Subway, and Ingo and Emmet give them praise and a proper victory.

Hilbert smiles, with Hilda at his side. He knows this victory is theirs. Not his, but theirs.

Hilda smiles back, and they are together.


End file.
